Tuesday, February 06, 2018

NEW RELEASES: NICOLE MITCHELL AND HAKI MADHUBUTI - LIBERATION NARRATIVES; TINKR'S CLASSY, GREASY, JAZZY, FUNKY, OLE AZZ BOOGA BAND - BLENDED; MENAGERIE - THE ARROW OF TIME

NICOLE MITCHELL AND HAKI MADHUBUTI - LIBERATION NARRATIVES

An incredible meeting of two massive Chicago talents – with results that are even more amazing than you might think! We've always loved the music of flute player Nicole Mitchell – and have reveled in watching her get even more righteous and sophisticated in her projects in recent years – and we've always had deep respect for the words and wisdom of Haki Madhubuti, a writer who makes us incredibly proud to live in the Windy City. Yet together, these two genius talents resonate with even more strength than we might ever have imagined – as Nicole turns in some of her deepest music in years, to set up the right kind of setting for Haki's words – all served up in a mixture of jazz and spoken passages that almost blows away most classics of this nature from the 70s! The group is wonderful – with Mitchell on flute, alongside Pharez Whitted on trumpet, Tomeka Reid on cello, Harrison Bankhead on drums, Renee Baker and Zara Zaharieva on violins, Tomas Fujiwara on drums, and Jovia Armstrong – and singer Ugochi provides additional vocal support for Madhubuti's spoken lead – as the group also soars out on some strong instrumental passages too. The scope of Mitchell's writing is even broader than before – and titles include "Rise Vision", "Move Into Our Own", "Gwendolyn Brooks", "Often Hard To Believe", "Woman Black", "We Walk The Way Of The New World", "Peace Starts Inside You", "Blackman Unfinished", and "Too Many Of Our Young".  ~ Dusty Groove

TINKR'S CLASSY, GREASY, JAZZY, FUNKY, OLE AZZ BOOGA BAND - BLENDED

When Jan Gaye, Marvin’s widow, heard Tinkr Barfield’s gritty, rockin’ gospel-jazz rendition of one of the Motown legend’s classics, she said, “Job well done, Tinkr Barfield.” Pop, funk and urban jazz fans everywhere will heap that kind of praise for the whole set list that Luther Vandross’ former bassist puts together on BLENDED, the eminently funky, richly eclectic debut from Tinkr’s Classy, Greasy, Jazzy, Funky, Ole Azz Booga Band. Working Quincy Jones-style with a massive all-star cast of studio and touring musicians and singers, Tinkr embodies all those adjectives and more (symphonic, brassy, electronica-based, etc.) on a mix of vibrant, rhythmically diverse originals and sly re-imaginings of classics by Dave Brubeck, The Beatles and Rogers & Hammerstein. True to its title, BLENDED’s got something for everyone’s classy, greasy, jazzy, funky, ole azz booga musical fantasies.~ www.smoothjazz.com


MENAGERIE - THE ARROW OF TIME

Deep sounds from Menagerie – a group led by funky genius Lance Ferguson, who's given us wonderful work in a variety of styles over the years – but who here has turned his talents to the world of spiritual jazz, which he takes on brilliantly with this excellent ensemble! Menagerie have a classic vibe that really lives up to the cover of the record – a style that's in that post-Coltrane moment when jazz groups were getting even more sophisticated with both their performance and sense of composition – really pushing the boundaries with new ideas, and a much larger vision in jazz. Lance plays guitar in the group, but the fuller energy comes from the tenor, alto, and soprano sax of Phillip Noy, as well as the trumpet of Ross Irwin, and use of piano and Fender Rhodes by Mark Fitzgibbon – all excellent players who can really hit the right sort of crescendo in spirit! The leadoff track has some great vocals, and all others are instrumental – nice and long, and very deep – with titles that include "Evolution", "The Arrow Of Time", "Escape Velocity", "Spiral", and "Nova". ~ Dusty Groove


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